UCAR building nationwide stable of experts on hot topic

It seems everyone is talking about climate change these days — but who can you trust?

Boulder's University Corporation for Atmospheric Research believes it has the answer. More than 160 of them, at this point.

UCAR, which manages the National Center for Atmospheric Research under sponsorship by the National Science Foundation, has launched what is calls ClimateVoices.org, a database of experts from around the country who will be available to speak to groups about one of the hottest topics affecting the planet today.

"What we're trying to do with Climate Voices is to give context-setting presentations about the science when they meet with public groups," said Cindy Schmidt, UCAR adviser for climate outreach.

"But then the very important thing for them to do is to begin conversations with the public about climate science, about climate change, about the possible effects of climate change, what they might be seeing in their own region of the country, and, as citizens, what they might want to do about this in their community."

'Yes, climate change is happening'

Events at the national and even the global level are coming together to supercharge the climate change discussion.

The Working Group III report on the ongoing Fifth Assessment of the International Panel on Climate Change, which will address the mitigation of climate change, is due to be released early Sunday in Berlin.

That comes right on the heels of the Working Group II report of the IPCC, which came late last month and included contributions from several Boulder scientists.

In addition to that, the National Climate Change Assessment, with a focus on climate change in the United States, instead of the global perspective of the IPCC reports, will be coming from the U.S. Global Change Research Program late this month or early in May.

"We know that 2014 is a year of opportunity and progress when it comes to climate change," Kathy Calvin, president and CEO of the U.N. Foundation, said in a news release. "By bringing expert voices to the forefront, Climate Voices will ensure that science is at the heart of the worldwide discussion this year about what can and should be done to confront this issue."

"This shouldn't be a debate about whether climate change is happening," Schmidt said. "We are starting from the scientific results, saying, 'Yes, climate change is happening and human beings have something to do with it.'"

The idea of developing a resource base for people who can help lead community-level discussions came from Tim Wirth, the former U.S. senator from Colorado who sits on the board of the United Nations Foundation, and brought the proposal to UCAR.

'The people who have the facts'

Through both recruiting scientists from all 50 states through the UCAR consortium of more than 100 colleges and universities, and by encouraging those in the scientific community to sign up, a database of more than 160 experts can now be accessed at climatevoices.org.

"Members of the public can go there and contact them and ask them to come to their particular groups," Schmidt said. "We're talking about libraries, chambers of commerce, service organizations, faith-based institutions, all sorts of organizations can reach out and use this resource; even if there is a group of neighbors, they could get together in their living rooms and invite one of the scientists to to come talk them."

All visitors to Climate Voices need to do is go the site, enter a city and state or ZIP code, after which they will be greeted by a list of participating scientists in their area, and a tab offering means by which an invitation to that speaker can be issued.

Schmidt emphasized that although climate change is often a politically charged topic, what UCAR is presenting is not an advocacy program.

"That's why we're asking scientists to do this, because they are the people who have the facts about the climate science, and they can relay those facts to their own neighbors and fellow citizens," Schmidt said.

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